Valmur_Dwur said:
I'll answer your question then I rant Now I'm running a PbEM at the moment but I apply it when I DM ftf. You should never know if your spell was saved against or not. Only if there is some obivious physcial response ie sleep.
I think the point is, in a directly Targetted spell, the spellcaster FEELS the magic fail. MIND you -- as a DM, I don't let the player know WHY the spellf ailed (that nasty masked-and-robed cleric might be a Half-Fiend and so not SUBJECT to Charm PErson). But they shoudl know it failed for SOME reason.
Otherwise even a Charm person should require that the spellcaster only have the slightest hint that it worked.
You do; you feel your spell fail to make the proper connection to the target.
And it should be easy to fool if you know what would be expected.
Which would require a Spellcraft roll -- at hefty costs in skill points for noncasters.
By this I mean your MU who has not cast the spell in anger only in learning it (Charm Person that is) casts it upon an enemy MU who has the spell and has cast it on some mook allies in the past. How would MU 1 know whether MU 2 was under the spell unless he tried to have him do something that was of a boon to MU 1 party?
First off, "magic-users" died with 1E; we have Wizards, Sorcerors, and Bards (and the occasional FR Cleric) chucking Charm Persons nowadays.
Anyway, minirant aside; the first spellcaster would "feel" their charm person fail to "Take hold" of the chosen target. Essentially, they'd feel the spell "miss" or "bounce off" or the like. Targetted spells, IMO, work along the lines of carefully building a magical "bridge" between the caster and the target, through which the spell's effects are channelled. Thus, there's a connection of sorts involved. If the spell ails to operate, that connection is also broken ... and not by the caster's choosing. Thus, they know the spell has failed.
Furthermore, could you trust the spell to be actually controlling MU 2 or is he playing along?
At first, yes. Later on ... maybe not. If you ask too much of the target, and they throw off the spell ... YOU might not know that.
But BY THE BOOK ... spellcasters know when their Targetted spells fail.